Harry The Barrier In His Mind
by rufous
Summary: When Harry fled Privet Drive with weasleys during the summer after his first year, he promised himself that such things would never happen again and leads him to uncover things that he would never have known untill much much later.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: This is partly AU but follows the cannon line for important parts with my own addition. It starts as he is leaving the Dursleys after being rescued by theWeasleys. It is set up during the the holidays of his first year. I am not into ships all that much and do not expect it.

Disclaimer:HP belongs to JKR and this story belongs to me. You can think up the rest of it.

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Harry sat back in the Weasleys car as they fled from Private Drive. He couldn't help but grin. It had been so long since he had anything to be happy about. The last few weeks had been a horror of the old days that he had very nearly forgotten after his time at Hogwarts. He had believed that the old days were over and now due to Dobby he would be experiencing the same thing again. Although happy again he wowed to himself to find a way to see that it never happened again. But for now he would enjoy the long deprived freedom. He looked out of the window to see Hedwig gliding alongside the car and for the first time in the entire summer there was true smile on his face,

The first few days at the Burrow were great. Though he felt a bit awkward at first, Mrs. Weasley seemed to understand and gradually drew him out of his shell. The greatest thing that happened however was when he decided to help the twins with their chores in cleaning the attic. It was just after the twins had left that the ghoul in the attic started to wail and in an effort to escape the awful screeching that he blindly ran into a little corner just outside the attic. It seemed that the twins hadn't noticed it because it was quiet dusty with lots of old cloths. With a sigh he decided to clean it up for the twins. It was when he was when he had finally finished removing all the old rags that he realized that one of them was not actually and rag but rather a very old bag. Feeling curious he decided to take the bag to his room with Ron to see what it contained. When he got to Ron's room he found it empty and decided to take a look at the bag. He found three old books in the bag, all of them leather covered and obviously somewhat expensive. All three of them had locks but were open. So he opened the first book and written in black were the words "William B W" which was repeated in the other two.

The next two hours were spent exploring what was written in the three books and he came to the conclusion that the books belonged to Ron's elder brother Bill. The first book was a diary from the first year onwards to the day he had become a professional curse breaker. Although it was his diary, Bill had noted in detail a lot of things such as the political scenario, economy and many such things. Bill being the heir of the Weasley family, he had to learn a lot of things that any heir would know eg: the laws and rights regarding the heirs, old laws and a number of other details that a pureblood heir would always know. It seemed that Bill wrote to put his thoughts on paper and organize his mind especially when he was in doubt or confused. Though he knew it would be wrong to do so, Harry decided to read the book but at a later time. It simply had too many useful things to pass up. The second book was not really a book as it was the compilation of all of Bill's notes from first to seventh year. From what he had read, it was unusually well organized by years, subjects, essays and the extra work and material he had researched and also excerpts from a number of reference books and their names. All of them linked with categories and made for easy reference and surprisingly an index. It seemed Bill had spent quiet some time making the book and it must have been very useful for him especially during the NEWTS. It was of course peppered with comments and observations from Bill. It was in fact much better than Hermione's work and better organized. Harry decided that the book was for keeps at least until he could duplicate it completely and find out the spells used to link the pages of information and yet making the book appear quiet slim.

The third book however was the prize. This book was once again a compilation or rather a duplicated compilation of all of Bills notes during his apprenticeship as a curse breaker. In fact it was a detailed report of all the techniques, spell, potions and the any number of useful things he had learnt in the 4 years of apprenticeship for a curse breaker and two years of internship needed to be a qualified journeyman level curse breaker. From the notes at the end, Bill wanted to have a duplicated copy of all that he had studied in case any thing happened to the original reports. Unfortunately, it was also quiet advanced and he doubted if Hermione could make head or tails of what was described in the third book.

Harry decided at once that he would be keeping all three books and learning as much as possible from them since no one was inclined to teach him especially the laws and heir stuff that Bill had detailed. The first thing however was to make sure that no one recognized the books for what they were. After a moment of thought he dived into his trunk and pulled out a long sheet of wrapping paper. It had been a gift from Hermione for Christmas or rather she had given it to him when she came back from holidays. In her school days in the muggle world, the others in her school who had not liked her intelligence used to now and then destroy her property mostely her books and notes which had been rather painful for her. Though it had not yet happened at Hogwarts, she had feared the same would happen especially by Malfoy and his gang. When she had gone to Diagon alley for gift shopping, she had come across enchanted wrapping paper. On a bit of enquiring from the shopkeeper, she had found that wizards used such paper on personal books. They had a powerful notice me not charm so that only the people who used the paper to wrap the book would recognize or notice the book and no other, an anti theft charm so that no one could steal it and would come back to the owner if he wished for it really hard and also a powerful protection spell to prevent anyone from ever defacing the book or harming it in any way. It had been in Hermione's word "Bloody Expensive but well worth it" and thus had bought two sheets using up most of her allowance and savings and of course got a detailed pamphlet from the shop on how to use the sheets and how to activate the protection. She had given him one of the sheets since she knew that the Dursleys would try to destroy his books when he went for holidays (the sheet was very large and could be used repeatedly and was very useful this summer when they had tried to do so). He still had quiet a bit left and thus sat down and wrapped all three books and activated the protection on them and not a bit later they proved their worth since Ron came barging in and immediately recognized the old bag as Bills he didn't even notice the three books next to Harry.

From that day on wards, for the next one month that he was at the Burrow, he would spend enormous amounts of time sitting at some corner or the other reading the first two books. The diary was extremely interesting to Harry since it had a lot of information of the time when Bill was at Hogwarts which was during Voldemorts reign of terror. It also helped that Bill had written quiet a bit about both his parents and was quiet surprised to note that his father was an Auror of repute while his mother was the youngest charms mistress in the last few centuries. Reading that had given him a resolve to match his parents achievements. Thus he had picked up the second book and gone through what was written in the first year part. He was surprised to see how expansive and large the portion was compared to his own first year. He supposed that it was due to the war going on since he noticed a very definite emphasis on spells for defense and other spells useful in combat and for survival.

A few days later when the Weasleys took him to Diagon alley, he discovered more than just the Malfoys at Borgin and Brukes when he came out of the fire place in Knockturn Alley. It had taken him quiet some time to get out from the little cupboard and had found quiet a few interesting items to look at in the mean time. One was the never ending note book. He had seen the same sort in the shops at Diagon Alley but this one beat those by miles in terms of looks, spell protections and the diversity of spells woven into it. It was beautiful, around the size of a file. The cover was black dragon hide with an intricate silver clasp holding it shut and tiny, barely visible runes on the spine of the book and he could feel the power of the magic woven into it. If it weren't for the fact that the explanation note on the book claimed it to be a "Never Ending Spell Book" he would have sworn it was a magical grimorie. Though he knew it would cost him a pretty galleon, he decided to buy it as it was far too tempting to miss out on. The protections on the book itself would be worth the cost since the books from the main alley could be broken into by any competent curse breaker but this book; its protections were made with blood magic. Though the practice of it was frowned upon by the Ministry, protections using blood magic were highly sought after. But what he found strange was that neither the Malfoys nor Borgin seemed to notice the book in the isolated corner next to the cupboard he was in. In fact Malfoy skipped the corner entirely.

Once the Malfoys left the shop, Harry crept out of the cupboard and after covering himself properly with a cloak he took the book from the stand and silently crept up to the still muttering Borgin and rang the bell. Borgin looked shocked to see someone in front of him but stilled when he saw the book that was in Harry's hand. When Harry asked him the price of the book Borgin absently muttered that his father had bought the book for 10 galleons but the book seemed to have disappeared after that. Suddenly he turned to Harry and asked him where he found the book and when Harry pointed to the dusty corner he immediately pulled out his wand and pointed to the corner muttering under his breath while he absentmindedly told Harry that to find the instructions to use the book, he would have to tap the clasp with his wand and say "_ento"_. Since Borgin didn't seem to pay any more attention to him, Harry put 10 galleons on the counter top before securing the book in his bag and left the store. It would be many hours before a befuddled Borgin would realize that he had given away a book worth over a 1000 galleons to some kid for barely 10 galleons.

He was soon rescued from the alley by Hagrid and went into the bank. This time however he was somewhat reluctant to go down to the vaults with the Weasleys since he didn't want Ron to become jealous with the amount of gold in his vault. So he approached the goblin and gave his key and asked for bank statements of his vault. The goblin at the counter scrutinized him carefully and then asked him to place his hand on a gold platform standing on his counter. When Harry did so, it flashed blue and then red. The goblin now looked thoughtfully at Harry before he snapped his fingers. Another goblin came to Harry and led him into a small room and after a moment brought him a small wooden box. Harry cautiously opened it to find a beautiful gold signet ring with a large blue gem. Harry was mesmerized by the soft glow from the clear blue stone. He slowly picked it up and slipped it on his fingers and the next moment he fell back in his chair as his body shuddered and sweat broke out. He could feel something almost boring at his mind, something powerful and old, and something that truly belonged to him and that was the only reason that he did not fight the feeling. All of a sudden it stopped and he could see again, better than ever. His mind felt clear and he felt like a fog had been lifted from his mind. He felt stronger than ever and better than at any time. It was than he noticed two old, distinguished and frantic looking goblins next to him. They calmed down the moment they noticed him awake and scrutinized him carefully. It was at that time that Harry realized that he was seeing without his glasses. The goblins looked at each other and slowly gave him a long parchment and bowed to him before leaving an increasingly irate Harry to read the parchment. Much of the details were too complex for Harry to understand but what he read made him extremely angry.

The parchment gave a list of spells on Harry and details regarding them. From what he could glean, there were quiet a few very powerful protective spells, one of which that stopped any one from scrying for him and in fact only those who only those who had met him could send him any owls, at least in the muggle world. There was also a very powerful magical signature damper spell on him along with two tracking spells, one was a temporary one on his wand by the ministry and the other, a very powerful one tracking him at all times and along with the status. In fact the parchment showed him as shocked in Gringotts with is complete health status from the fact that he was tired and hungry to his headach. The tracking spell was cast by one APWBD and had been on him since a baby along with many others cast by the same person. The tracking spell alone brought a number of questions to his mind, questions that he didn't have the capacity to address, like who had cast it and why they hadn't done anything for his welfare when they obviously knew what was happening at Privet Drive. But reading the next list of spells set his blood on fire. The first spell was a kind of barrier spell between his magic and his mind. It allowed the magic grow normally as he aged but it stopped his conscious accesses to most of his magic. From what he could see, he could not accesses more than a 5th of his power though it could be released as accidental magic or when he did magic when he was emotional. He supposed it explained why his accidental magics were always so very strong while he took a lot of time to learn a spell. However it had a few side effects. One was that it dampened his memory and his mental capability unless he had a talent for it or he was very emotional about learning it. The worse part was that his magical channels would not be strong enough to channel his full power should he be able to accesses it since they were used to the smaller levels of power of flowing through them. This explained why he felt so tired when he did strong accidental magic. Whoever had placed the barrier had deliberately stunted his magical abilities. Of course there would other little effects that he didn't know about but he would research about it later. However when he had worn the family ring, its semi sentient magic had sensed the spells and had tried to remove the more harmful of them and had shielded him somewhat.

However it had not been able to do so completely but it had made a large gap in the barrier and had put up a block on the tracking spell so that it would only show his general location and wouldn't show anything if he was in an unplottable area. Before he could continue reading the parchment, the two elderly goblins came back and stood before him. No words passed between them but the Goblins must have understood what Harry must have been feeling. One of the goblins raised one of his hands and made a sharp hooking motion and the next moment and thick book appeared and on top of it was a large parchment and a similar one was in the goblins hands. On a sign from the goblin, Harry looked at the parchment and the next moment words started to form and as he read it he understood that the goblin was actually speaking to him.

"Mr. Potter", the words read, "according to the conditions on your account, your family signet ring could only be given to you when you enquired about your wealth. However we had not anticipated the type of spells that were on you. It seems that when you wore the ring, it sensed the spells on you and tried to break them but was not completely successful. However the spells may soon regain their hold on you." With a thumping heart Harry thought to ask how that could be prevented when he noticed the words appearing on the parchment. He assumed the goblins too had read it since words started to appear on the parchment again. They read "for that to happen the power of the ring needs to be reinforced at the very least. Otherwise there are also some very powerful rituals that you could perform but those will take time and the back lash of the magic will most likely kills you since you are so young." On seeing the questioning look on Harry's face they continued "To reinforce the rings power, you must hold some of the more powerful heirlooms of your family. I would myself suggest the Potter Family Grimorie. If I am not mistaken it is in your family vault". Now Harry looked gob smacked. He had not known that he even had a family vault let alone a Family Grimorie. Family Grimories were very powerful magical books made by a family. These were generally only among the old families but Harry hadn't known that the Potters were among them. The Grimories contained the complete information about the family, their history, the different members from the time since it had been made, all the information collected by all members of the family including all the spells, laws, politics, property, wealth and of course the family magic and family talents. Thus they were an impressive work of magic with lots of protections were supposedly sentient in nature. All the powerful old families had them but no one apart from the head of the family could access them. Harry wondered what was in the book and wowed to read it soon. When he looked up, the goblins nodded to him and he read the parchment again. "We will send you to the family vault but you can not accesses the full family finances until you are sixteen. The trust fund you use will be filled every quarter year. When you reach the vault place your hand on the emblem on the door and clearly state your name. You will know what to do after that. Place your hand on the grimorie in the vault and the power of the ring will be reinforced. The book in your hand is about the spells on you. I hope you will find it useful". Harry bowed to two elder goblins and was soon led to the tunnels by a younger goblin.

After a surprisingly short ride to the vaults, Harry stood before the vault doors. He placed his hands on the emblem which was large roaring griffin and spoke his name softly and clearly. He was immediately absorbed into the door and at the same time he knew a lot of things about his vaults, like how many rooms there were in it, every thing that was there, and what he couldn't touch or take yet. Harry gaped at the large beautiful hall but his eyes were only on the book in the center of it sitting on a high pedestal. He knew that he would have to go back soon and thus decided to explore later but for now he did as the goblin asked and placed his palm on the covering of the book. Once again it was the same feeling as when he had worn the ring but with out the pain he had felt. In fact he could feel the magic examining him, judging his worth and then he felt the acceptance of the book to his power and he knew it would be his. The next moment he felt the book bonding with his mind but along with it he felt many other bonds. These were rather like connections and he instinctively knew that these were bonds that all the Potter Lords held, connections to every one of the wards over their properties, houses and many things that he couldn't yet recognize. For a moment his mind flitted through the information provided by them and he knew where each of the houses were, what wards were there, the conditions of the wards and o the property itself. But for all that he couldn't understand most of it since he was not yet knowledgeable enough and his untrained mind could not accesses the information properly.

With that he looked at the cover of the book and there written in stylized words was his name; however it was written as "Lord Harold James Black potter". He didn't know what the Black meant or why it was there but he decided to it up later. After a moment the words disappeared and the book itself became smaller looking like an old and well worn textbook rather then the grand looking Grimorie that it really was. He at once knew that he would be taking it with him and that the book would be helping him train and teach all that he was supposed to know about his family.

He was soon out of the bank after having _talked_ to the two old goblins. He of course didn't understand why he had to use the parchment but wrote it of as a goblin thing. He had of course taken the book and also a Gringotts vault pouch, meaning a pouch connected directly to your vault with of course a whole ton of protections. He now had a bit of shopping to do.

He had noticed in his first year that all the students in his dorm had different types of trunks. Neville's trunk even had the Longbottom crest on it. Only his and Ron's had been the most simple of Hogwarts student trunks. This was simply a single compartment trunk but with 5 times the normal volume. Hermione's trunk had been a beautiful brown wood one with 4 lock s and 4 very large compartments, one a wardrobe, one a large bookshelf of sorts for all her books and scrolls etc, the third had been a compartment specifically meant for potions, ingredients, phials, cauldrons and such and last was an enormous one for miscellaneous items. It of course had protections and powerful stabilizing charms and such and according to Hermione, it was the preferred type of trunk taken by all senior students with enough money. Harry thought it was extremely useful to have and wanted a similar one with more protections if possible.

A half hour later Harry was walking away as the proud owner of a beautiful black ebony wood trunk with elegant silver and steel bindings and a life like depiction of the Potter crest, which was griffin with widespread wings about to take off, on lid of the trunk along some beautiful looking symbols on the edges. A bit of persuasion and a flash of his scar had convinced the owner of the shop to activate some powerful blood protections on it. On the outside it looked like an elegant black trunk with the standard 4 key holes types that some students took, but on the inside under the blood charms, you find each of the compartments to be truly massive and then there was the 5th compartment that he wasn't going to let any one see. The trunk had literally eaten a hole in his vault but he decided it was well worth the price. A tap on a small symbol shrunk the trunk to a pendent size and he wore it on his neck.

Once outside he located the Weaselys buzzing all over Diagon Alley before he carefully made his way to Madam Malkins Robes for All Occasions and half and hour later, a very happy Harry left the shop with a widely smiling Madam Malkins holding a large order for both wizarding and muggle clothes in many different materials and styles. Harry then skipped over to the postbox.

The goblins had informed Harry that due to the spells on him he wouldn't be able to reactive any mails from any one who he hadn't personally met and that any one might be able to intercept his mails however good his owl might be. So the best way to negate that was to take a high security post box at the owl office. All owls on his name would simply come to this box and would be scanned for any magic and depending on what type of magic was present, the letters would be forwarded to him. All those with harmful magic would be destroyed while he would also be informed of the spell on the letters. To make sure that he received the letters, the goblins had given him two twoway boxes. What ever was put in one box would appear in the other box and because the boxes were quiet small, Hogwarts wards wouldn't affect them. So immediately set up the high security post drop in his name and gave one box to the postmaster to forward the letters to him.

He then joined the Weaselys who seemed to have forgotten about him in their excitement about meeting some bloke called Lockhart who was signing books at Flourish and Blotts. His infernal luck acted up again and he was forced to endure a photograph with the man but he got his little revenge when he supposedly tripped over his feet and dropped all magical ink on Lockhart's head. From the bouncing of the photographer he knew that the picture of Lockhart with his head soaked in color changing ink would be the headlines tomorrow. He snickered quietly to himself when he read the label on the bottle stating "Permanent Ink". After the little tiff with the Malfoys, Harry got his school books along with a few others mentioned in Bills notes. Reading Bills notes had given him an appreciation for doing the same.

After a brief visit to the apothcarery and Floreen Fortscue, he was back to the Burrow for the rest of the summer. This had been the most enjoyable summer in his entire short life. He spent some time flying with the Weasleys every day but most of the time was spent reading the assortment of books he had got with the most importance to the Grimorie and Bills notes. He had simply told Ron that he was completing his home work since he hadn't done so at the Dursley's. But it was the Grimorie that interested him more than any other. He had understood how the Grimorie worked the moment he had touched it and thus when he opened it next, it was to find a way to lessen the impact of the spells on him and how to remove them. The book had responded by showing him of a completely new branch of magic called the Mental Arts. These arts were learnt by people after they had completed their majority which was 17 in the wizarding world since they would have better control over themselves and their abilities which most children wouldn't have and thus wouldn't hurt themselves in the process. The book however advised him to start practicing these since he was sufficiently shielded by the power of the book and ring and moreover it would also weaken the barrier in his mind. Thus Harry had started the extremely tiring and rigorous process of occlumency in which the first step was to organize the mind and to sort the memories. Thus he had taken to meditating for at least 2 hours after Ron had gone to sleep. Of course, occlumency was not the only thing he had learnt in the book. Everyday he learnt something of his family, its long history, their many deeds and achievements but most importantly about his parents and their lives. He spent quiet some time looking at all the pictures that the book provided him with.

He also started to use the never ending spell book (NESP) that he got at Knockturn Alley. All that he had to was to prick his finger on the clasp and let blood drip on its surface and viola! The Potter crest had appeared on the cover of the book and the blood protections meant that anything written in was almost absolutely safe from prying eyes since few could even find the book when not in his hands. He found it a delight to use, especially the dictoquills that had come with it. It was very easy to add all the notes and essays he had taken during the first year as well as take down his own notes, keep track of all his work and copy out the written essays from the book to new parchment due to the very interactive and easy to use index which strangely reminded him of the computer at Privet Drive. All he had to do was to touch the Potter crest on top of the page and think of what he wanted and he had them at his finger tips. Better yet, it also had all types of muggle paper which he preferred over parchment any day. The book also doubled as an estate managers book to help him learn and keep track of his finances which the goblins started sending reports, the different laws that affected him, the political sessions and scenarios in the wizarding world, articles from the Daily Prophet which regarded him in any way (he had requested that to his account manager who had been only too glad to do so). He decided that the book was a boon to him and used it every day for anything to do with writing. Strangely enough, his first thought was that Malfoy would be insanely jealous at seeing such an obviously expensive book in Harry's hands.

It would soon be the end of summer holidays and he would have to soon go back to Hogwarts. The summer had been he finest in his life but he had some very specific goals for this year at Hogwarts. The first and foremost he decided was to find a way to keep the Dursleys from ever harming him again. The fact that he couldn't do magic with his wand made it tricky but as his recent bout of reading had given him more than enough ideas none of which would need him actively using a wand. Another thing he had noticed was his increasing aptitude for learning magic, both charms and transfiguration seemed easier, especially charms. He decided that he would soon be taking help from professor Flitwick like his mother had. It had become a desire of his outshine his parents and prove to every one that he was not just the Boy-Who-Lived, known for something he did not remember, but as Harold James Black Potter known for his abilities in magic. Funnily enough, he never could for some reason remember the Black part of his name and he always forgot about it the moment he thought about it. Well he thought, as he sat in the Weaselys car on the way to the station, this was a new year and it would be a better one than last.

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AN: I do not have a beta and there might be plenty of mistakes. If any one would like to do so, please send me a mail. I am sorry but I will not be contiuning Elder Wolves, at least not now. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimers:- You know them and they apply. HP belongs to J.K.Rowling. Bye and enjoy the story.

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Well! Harry thought as he lay down for sleep, at least he was back at Hogwarts. It had been a bloody hectic day for Harry. First he had gone head first through a solid brick wall and then missed the train. He had then tried to convince a thickheaded Ron not take his fathers car, which had been unfortunately ignored. The only thing he could say about his flying trip to Hogwarts was that he understood why people complained about long flights. The novelty of it had soon worn down and he had dearly wished to be back on the Hogwarts Express, meeting with all his classmates and having iced pumpkin juice from the trolley and from Rons face, he too wished the same. Of course their luck had to turn on them and they had crashed into the whomping willow. Harry shuddered for a moment as he thought about it. It had been scary to feel the whomping willow smashing into the car. He supposed they had been somewhat lucky that the branches hadn't directly hit them or they would have been spending the night in the infirmary. On the whole, Harry decided it was a good experience but not one he would be going through any time soon. Suddenly he remembered the evening article shown by Sanpe and groaned into his pillow wishing that he had tried harder to convince Ron about not taking the car. He just knew there would be repercussions especially by the Malfoys. Nonetheless he was excited to start classes from tomorrow and start practicing all the spells he had memorized over the holidays. Better yet, his quick thinking had got them away with only a detention and no points from Gryffindor.

As he had predicted, there were more than enough repercussions from the flying car incident as he had taken to calling it. Nonetheless he was glad that nothing too severe had come out of it. His anonymously written 1etter to the Daily Prophet on the Malfoys selling dangerous items at Knockturn alley had immediately taken precedence over the flying car incident and suddenly the paper was being flooded with a number of anonymous letters praising Arthur Weasleys efforts in confronting dark wizards. Draco's face had soon taken on an ugly look on seeing those letters in the Daily Prophet. At least now Ron seemed more inclined to think before leaping in with his pants down though Harry didn't think that such an attitude would last for long.

Harry was of course proved right soon thereafter. A week later, Ron was sitting at Hagrids hut and puking his guts out. He supposed Ron had a good reason for attacking Malfoy but did he have to do it with a broken wand and humiliate himself doing so. One week of classes had shown that Ron's wand had become somewhat useless even with all the magical tape holding it together and he had still tried using to hex Malfoy. Now everyone would know about it and he just knew that Ron would be a laughing stock of Hogwarts for at least the whole day.

Nonetheless he enjoyed himself better than ever. His increased aptitude in all the subjects and especially in charms and transfiguration had not gone unnoticed by the teachers. He found himself joining Hermione more often than not in her daily forays into the library and competing with her for better marks. Snape had been quiet stunned by the effort he was putting into his work and had given him a hard gaze which had turned confused for moment before he had stormed away and at that moment Harry knew that Snape had been using the Mind Arts against him and for the first time he had utterly failed.

The other teachers however had been more enthusiastic with the change in Harry. Professor Flitwick had taken to watching Harry every time he had introduced a new spell to the class and he would beam with pride when he mastered them with ease before any one else in the class could even get them right. He had also taken time to talk to Harry in almost all of the charms classes while every one else practiced. Harry particularly enjoyed these discussions with Prof. Flitwick since he more often than not learned the use of the spell in different conditions and also the variations of the same spell. He at once decided that if possible he would take extra classes with him. In fact, his aptitude in the subject amazed him more than any thing else and his desire to improve increased when he heard Prof. Flitwick reminiscing to McGonagall about his mothers unparalleled abilities in charms.

But one dark spot in all the classes was the fated Defense Against Dark Arts class that was now being taken by the pompous ponce Gilderoy Lockhart. Lockhart had been quiet miffed by the ink incident at Diagon Alley but nonetheless still tried to buddy up to Harry. Of course, all sorts of little accidents seemed to happen to him during such times, like when Harry spat a mouthful of pumpkin juice all over him in _"shock"_ at the opportunity of being photographed with his _hero._ Harry being the good boy he was had tried to help but unfortunately his cleaning spell had been misfired in his _excitement_ and the entire Hogwarts got to see a Bald, sticky and juice soaked Lockhart running out of the great hall. However after the first class with Lockhart, Harry knew that he would be doing all the defense work himself. Even a first year with a brain could easily defeat a bunch of pixies as he and Hermione proved.

But that was alright with Harry, between Bills notes, his forays in the library with Hermione and the Grimorie, he found himself learning more than in any class. Hermione of course still persisted with Lockhart's books, acing every one of his extremely silly tests about his favorite hair color and such. However Harry kept his head down and complied with them because of a niggling feeling in his mind that Lockhart would be very useful later on though how, he had no idea.

It was during his first detention of the year which had been assigned to Lockhart, that Harry had an in linking that this year would be just as exciting as the last. McGonagall had informed him and Ron in the morning that they had their detentions with Lockhart and Filch respectively. Although Ron had complained bitterly, Harry thought that he had the worst deal and he was quiet right. He spent a couple hours listening to Lockhart drone on about his popularity while making Harry address the letters for him and he couldn't even do any mischief since the man was quiet meticulous and through in checking up his correspondence. The one thing he did learn was how to maintain correspondence with different kinds of people all the while sounding polite and warm while conveying his thoughts effectively. He had to give credit to Lockhart for his writing abilities if not much else. It had been quiet a while since the detention had started and Harry was starting to doze off that he heard an eerily menacing voice for the first time in his life.

"_Hungry, so hungry. Rip, tear, KILLLLLL" _

It jerked Harry awake and that caused Lockhart to shut up. On seeing a startled Harry looking around the office, Lockhart exclaimed about the time and then sent him back to the tower. Back at the lions den as they Gryffindor called their tower, Harry related what he had heard to Hermione since Ron hadn't come yet. Hermione hadn't dismissed his claims out of hand but decided to keep an ear out for anything odd happening. Nevertheless it was more than two months before anything out of the ordinary happened.

Harry had got himself stuck to attending the death day party of nearly headless nick for Halloween as a favor to the ghost. Nick had been quiet excited at the prospect of having living guests at his party and Harry didn't have the heart to say no to him. So the Halloween so the Gryffindor trio amidst a party of ghosts and a whole table full of moldy food whishing they could go back to the wonderful feast going on in the great hall above. Finally Ron had enough and they decided to leave the dungeons when Harry heard the voice again.

"_Hungry, so hungry. Blood, smell blood. Rip, tear, KILLLLLL" _

Hermione nudged Harry in the back. " What is it Harry? Come on, let's go to the feast."

But Harry stopped her with a finger to his lips and quickly explained to Ron and Hermione about the voice and that it was trying to kill someone. One look at Harry and all three were running after him to where he thought was the source of the voice. Soon they were in the second floor corridor walking slowly since all the torches seemed to have been blown out. That seemed to scare Hermione a bit but they still walked forward to where they could see something glinting on the walls. And there on the walls in all its gory details were the words written in something that looked suspiciously like blood were the foot long words,

"**_The chamber is open. Enemies of the heir Beware." _**

And underneath was hung by the tail, looking like a stuffed toy was Filch's dratted cat, Mrs. Norris. All three of them were stuck in place looking at the site in front of them when suddenly they heard lots of footsteps. Before the three of them could even think of making themselves scarce, the students were behind them and suddenly someone screamed and a pandemonium started in the halls with some students pushing front to see what was going on and other pushing back to get away from there. Soon the professors were there and every one made way for them but Filch took one look at his cat and the next moment he was ready to jump at Harry accusing him of doing it to his cat. Harry had been quite ready to tell the man to shut up when Malfoy's whining voice rang out in the still corridor, "Enemies of the heir beware. You will be getting what is coming to you, you mudbloods."

However Dumbledore's arrival put an end to all the babble and within a few minutes Harry and his friends was sitting in Lockhart's elaborately decorated office watching Dumbledore whisper long, complicated incantations at the cat with all the professors crowded around him, heads almost touching each others. For some reason, the sight gave Harry a morbid sense of amusement, all those dark robed witches and wizards, crowded around an old man, staring intently at a grotesquely displayed stuffed cat while Lockhart capered around the office detailing the different curses that might have been used on the cat, with worse than the last and of course, Filch's sobs grew louder on hearing each one of them. He supposed it must have been harder on Filch who he had found out was squib.

Nevertheless, as tense as Harry might have been, he still took a note of all the curses that Lockhart was mentioning. His research had told Harry that though Lockhart might be a fake, there was still an element of truth in his books and most of the curses he described were actually real and that had bee the only reason he hadn't made too much trouble in Lockhart's class. But right now a tiny feeling of dread wove through Harry's mind. Though he knew he was innocent of any charges that maybe laid on him by Filch, the students of Hogwarts were a different matter. He had after all learnt the hard way of the rumor mill that Hogwarts was and how swiftly they turned to every new tid- bit of gossip that ran through the halls. However all such thoughts ground to a halt when Dumbledore announced that the cat was "**_merely petrified"._** He couldn't recall what exactly happened after that except that Dumbledore had told every one that no student could have done and that he needed to thank McGonagall though for what he didn't know. His mind had been occupied by what Dumbledore had said and he knew that his research would be into methods of petrification.

The upcoming quiditich match however took precedence over the research in Harry's mind and soon he left the research to Hermione to concentrate on the match. It was especially important for Harry since all the Slytherins had new brooms and Malfoy took every opportunity to rub it into Harry's face. If Gryffindor won the match then Malfoy wouldn't be showing his face anytime soon and they would be the laughing stock of the entire school, an idea that appealed intensely to Harry. If Gryffindor lost, then Gryffindor was out of the race for the quiditch cup since he had no doubt that Ravenclaw and Huffelpuff would be flattened by the snakes. Worse of all was that much of the responsibility for winning would be on his shoulders. The Slytherin brooms simply overmatched the Gryffindor ones and the only broom that could compete with theirs was his own Nimbus 2000. So finally it came down to a match of skills with Malfoy the Slytherin seeker who if won would surely make life miserable for Harry and his friends.

Now as Harry lay in the hospital wing, he had a feeling euphoria at their winning of the match against Slytherin at almost impossible odds. The Nimbus 2001 brooms they had been using were bad enough but Harry had to contend with Molfoy as well as a rouge buldger, which had seemed intent on breaking him to pieces. It had taken all of Harry's considerable skill on the broom to keep him aloft and flying and it had still cost him his arm broken into pieces to get the blasted snitch. And then there had been Lockhart and his blazing incompetence resulting in all the bones in his arm disappearing. It had been quiet a shock to Harry's system to see his had flopping around completely boneless. Of course the team had been more intent on congratulating him on his win rather than his injuries. He had to sometimes wonder at the almost casual disregard his wizarding friends had to such sever and dilapidating injuries. He decided at once that healing would also be one of the subjects he would be studying at all costs since he had quite a knack for getting injured. Nonetheless the match had been very satisfying to Harry. Seeing Malfoy's face as he was being reamed out by Flint and his teammates had brought a smile on Harries face. He supposed he would be remembering it for a long long time.

Later Harry dozed of in a pained sleep feeling jabs of pins and needles in his right arm as he visibly felt the arm re-growing from the socket onwards. He suddenly felt someone sponging his forehead, something Madame Pomphery wouldn't have been doing. He at once sat up and there was a thump and a muffled squeak. A bit of scrabbling about and Harry had his glasses firmly on looking right at a bandaged and extremely nervous looking Dobby.

He sat back hearing the raggedy little elf telling him of how he would be better off living grievously injured than in the school and how he had hoped to keep Harry out of the school. For once Harry was more than furious with the elf than he had ever been. The creature took so many pains with all its elaborate setups and traps to get him out of Hogwarts instead of giving him a clue of what was going on. However, on seeing the state of the little creature, Harry's anger was replaced with pity and compassion for the creature, which saw something in Harry that he himself couldn't see. However the elf left quite hurriedly for some reason just as Harry was beginning to have a conversation with him and the next moment the Hospital wing opened up with the Dumbledore and McGonagall carrying what appeared to be a statue between them.

What followed was the most bizarre conversation Harry had heard until now. All three of them apparently knew what had happened and that the same had happened a long time ago and was happening now. Harry however was shocked on noticing that the 'statue' that the two professors had been bringing in was actually a petrified Colin Creevy who from what the professors were saying had been trying to sneak in and visit him. Also the attacker had somehow melted all the film in Colin's camera, which the petrified boy was holding to his face.

The next day Harry was released from the infirmary by an absent minded Madam Pomphery who was staring at a curtained off section of the infirmary. The moment he stepped out he knew that Hogwarts would be rife with rumors of what had actually happened and for some unfathomable reason he was in the center of most of them. Of course Lockhart had tried in his own inept way to break the tensions by arranging a dueling club which had got a very hearty attendance but unfortunately for Harry, he found himself in the center of things once again with a whole new set of rumors attached to him along with the title of '_Partselmouth', _and Harry had grown quite sick of the hypocritical and back stabbing student body of Hogwarts. The only comfort he had was in the company of the twins and his friends, though Ron seemed to at times be wary of him. However the entire thing came to a head when Harry had been storming out of the library after hearing one of the Huffelpuffs idiotic comments.

A group of Huffelpuffs had been talking in cozy little corner of the library Harry had decided to eavesdrop on them and later wished he hadn't done so. They had at once rubbished the sacrifice of his mother which had saved and keept him alive and had in their own convoluted way termed that he as a baby had somehow used some sort of terrible and dark magic that no one else had known and used it to protect himself and somehow become a dark lord. Their little impassioned speeches had been quirt laughable but the idea behind had not been and it gave Harry quite a turn and he wondered what the rest of the somewhat brainless idiots who filled the ancient halls of Hogwarts thought. He almost absent-mindedly wondered why he was thinking in such a decidedly Snapeish manner before he found himself on the ground before coat covered Hagrid who was swinging a couple of dead roosters in one massive hand.

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A/N:- Sorry for the wait. A couple of questions, since Harry's eyes were fixed he doesn't need glasses, but he has been using them for so long that he would uncomfortable with out them and so the goblins enchanted a pair of plain glasses with somewhat stylish frames and gave it to him. As for as the enchantments on them, they are supposed to mix with his onw and grow with his magic.

And once again, any one willing to proof read the story, pleas contact me. Bye.


End file.
